For 10 years, Ilhan Omar and her defenders have insisted that the claim she married her brother was a right-wing conspiracy theory federal officials debunked during her first campaign in 2016. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that federal officials never debunked it. In fact, the only thing that shut down an investigation was the statute of limitations.
According to the Times, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security investigated Omar’s 2009 marriage to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in the summer of 2016 — during the Obama administration — and found some evidence the marriage was fraudulent. Six current and former officials told the paper that agents found evidence suggesting Elmi and Omar were siblings. The case did not stall because anyone cleared her. It stalled because prosecutors concluded the potential felony fell outside the five year statute of limitations.
Most of those who talked to the Times, the Times itself notes, had law enforcement careers that spanned several presidential administrations. Some are retired, and some are still on the job in Minnesota. They served Republicans and Democrats alike, and they are not saying the Obama administration buried the case for political reasons. They are saying there was a there there, and the clock ran out.
There is one detail in the reporting that I keep coming back to. Elmi got a provisional 2-year green card based on the marriage. When he tried to make it permanent, immigration officials asked for more evidence that the marriage was real. Rather than answer, he left the United States and abandoned the petition. People in genuine marriages generally respond to that request.
